Biskupin

Part of a commemorative cover issued on by Polish Post on the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Biskupin.

Biskupin is the archaeological site of an early Slav settlement discovered in the 1930s. It is located on the Biskupin Lake peninsula, north of Gniezno, Poland. Part of this 2,500 year old settlement has been reconstructed and an impressive fort and a range of wooden buildings and Bronze Age artifacts can be viewed. This fine skansen-type museum is open daily between April and October.

A photograph taken in the early 1970s of some of the reconstructed structures at the open-air skansen in Biskupin, Poland.

Random trivia related to Biskupin:
- The existence of the site only came to light after timbers were discovered as a result of the partial draining of the lake in 1933.
- Archaeological excavation began in 1934 and continued until the outbreak of World War II.
- The site was excavated by Professor Dr. Hans Schleif and a team of German archaeologists, part of SS-Ausgrabung Urstätt, during the early part of the Second World War.
- Excavations and research were continued by Poles after the war and continued until 1974.
- The settlement in Biskupin is associated with the Lusatian culture, which began in the middle Bronze Age and lasted through to the early Iron Age.

A multiview picture postcard purchased on a visit to the Biskupin archaeological reserve in the late 1980s.